18th February 2010: Stone Group, the technology solutions provider to the education and public sectors, has been awarded the Investors in People Gold status award in recognition of the company’s continued commitment to improving business performance through its people. Stone Group is one of only 78 companies in the UK to have been awarded the Gold status, which is the highest level that any company can achieve within the newly restructured Investors in People programme introduced last summer.
Investors in People is a non-departmental public body which provides a simple and flexible framework to help thousands of organisations improve their business performance. The model is specifically designed to be versatile in order to match individual business processes and unique company cultures, providing a framework of good practice on how best to run a business. It is used by more than 35,000 organisations in over 50 countries.
Prior to achieving Gold status, Stone Group had previously been awarded the Investors in People Standard recognition for its achievements. As part of the programme, Stone Group is reassessed every three years to ensure the business continues to meet the standards of the accreditation. Having experienced a successful three years since the last assessment with substantial business growth, large scale investment and a number of business acquisitions, Stone Group was eligible to apply for Investors in People Gold status.
James Bird, CEO, Stone Group comments, “We are extremely proud to have achieved the Investors in People Gold award. Empowerment and ownership is key to our organisational success and being recognised by Investors in People at this level shows that we are operating to the highest standards and effectively utilising our biggest asset; which is our staff. To be one of such a small number of UK businesses to receive the Gold standard is a real achievement and something that the whole company is thrilled about.”
Bird continues, “We have invested a huge amount of time, money and resources into the business over recent years to ensure that we are able to provide our staff with a productive, harmonious working environment. Since our last assessment three years ago, Stone Group has grown significantly, taking on over 100 additional staff and opening our own recycling facility to manage the responsible disposure of redundant hardware. As a result of our continued business success Stone Group is moving to new state of the art 90,000 square foot premises in the next few months, which will enable our whole business to operate efficiently under one roof. We have also invested heavily in implementing a new computer system at the new building to ensure that our staff have the most effective tools at their fingertips.”
Bird adds, “Stone Group has undergone a number of significant changes over the past year as the business has grown and expanded into new sectors and industries such as consumer and managed services. It is therefore important for us to provide our staff with the skills, knowledge and equipment they need to enable them to deliver the high standards of quality and service our customers expect.”
Stone Group’s assessment process for Investors in People involved a programme assessor spending seven days at the Stone offices in Staffordshire. Throughout this seven day period a cross-section of staff, including all members of the Board and the Senior Management team together with a representative proportion of the workforce, were asked a series of questions regarding their knowledge of the company and its current business plan, their individual job roles and responsibilities, along with the amount of training Stone Group provided.
Bird adds, “The assessment process is very thorough and is cleverly constructed to enable the assessor to see all angles of the business from the top down. By cross referencing everyone’s answers the assessor is also able to explore specific business areas to gain a true picture of the company. The feedback that we have received from Investors in People has been fantastic, with our report showing that the assessor did not receive a single negative response when interviewing our staff. This positive feedback is reflected in our staff turnover, which is currently just under 4% with sickness and absentee levels also at an all time low.”
Bird concludes, “Receiving the Investors in People Gold award is a huge achievement for the company and I am delighted that we have reached this standard. As a business we are always looking to improve our processes to ensure we are providing the correct working conditions to get the best out of our staff. In today’s difficult market no business can afford to stand still and the Investors in People Gold award really helps to set us apart from our competitors by recognising our commitment to providing high quality services and products.”